
README FILE for the BIRTH OF AMERICA SCENARIO

I.  The file bamerica.zip should contain the following files including this readme.txt file:

bamerica.scn	bamerica.txt	cities.gif	city.txt	events.txt	game.txt	icons.gif	rules.txt
terrain1.gif	terrain2.gif	units.gif


II.  Nations Involved

A.	Every nation is intended for play in this scenario, although the most rewarding will be the Americans.  They are as advanced as the Europeans, although their infantry are a bit weaker.  They are ruled as a republic.  At the outset they are allies of the English, although this will prove to be a double-edged sword . . . .  Franklin is the leader because he was really the first to envision the thirteen colonies as a single unit.  If you can't recongize the American flag it is the rattlesnake "Don't Tread on Me" flag that predated Betsy Ross'.

B.	The French, English and Spanish are roughly equal and might make an interesting multiplayer game.  Knowledge-wise they will advance fastest, but only their capitals and main ports appear here (and although the capitals can be sailed to, they are not "coastal" cities and can't build boats).  All three nations are "communist" (renamed monarchy) to allow for the distance from Europe.  Their rulers are the monarchs alive at the start of the scenario (1703).

C.	The native tribes are the toughest challenge.  Although their units are "alpine," they will have to trade with Europe to get gunpowder weapons and horses.  The Cherokee and Ojibwa are fundamentalist tribes, to make them better suited for combat.  The weaker Iroquois are democratic (which they were in reality).  Pontiac fought against the Colonies in the Revolutionary War, while Moytoy was a local Cherokee chief the English "promoted" just so they could justify offering treaties to various villages.  Joseph Brant was a staunch English ally in both the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars.  They will get the best technologies - gunpowder, domestication (for mounted units) and the wheel - by killing European units

D.	The lone barbarian city is Lisbon, a destination for an America bereft of trading partners.  It and all European cities will be very hard to capture.  I don't recommend trying.


III. Unit statistics, the tech tree, and descriptions of city improvments and wonders are fully explained in the civilopedia. One strange aspect of the game is that there are many colonial industries represented by power plants.  These can't be built elsewhere and provide a bit of flavor to the different regions of the map.  "Mining" as the replacement for the manufacturing plant refers to steam-engine-assisted coal extraction that ushered England along the path to industrialization.


IV.  Most of the North American continent is still wilderness at this time, and the thick forests provide no food.  However, all European and American pioneers can transform rugged terrain into farmland for city growth.


V.   Notes for the purists.

	In 1703 the French had Cahokia, which gave them settlements down the Mississippi (but no New Orleans till 1718, quite a surprise to me!).  Philadelphia was the second-biggest Anglophone city in the world at this time which is why it is much bigger than real life in this scenario.  All the other city populations are scaled in relation to it.

	The material about Tenska-Tawa and Pontiac is more accurately outside the scope of this scenario.  But it is all true, which may surprise readers of Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series.

	I used many units from Alex Mor's Quebec and John Ellis' Colonies II scenarios because they are contemporary and well-drawn.  Captain Nemo's 19th Century European cities are about the prettiest I have seen (though I darkened some roofs because they were a bit too pale for my taste).

	This map without strange terrain and Europe is available by emailing the author daumen@mindspring.com.